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Although there is no specific prohibition of stunning
prior to slaughtering of animals in Islam, it remains, after certain studies,
that refraining from stunning is always best, due to the following reasons.
Pain
Islam is a religion which encourages its followers to
show mercy to all of creation. It prohibits inflicting unnecessary harm to
animals. Even during time of slaughtering, the Prophet said:
“And when you slaughter, then slaughter in the most
perfect of manners.” (Saheeh Muslim)
He commanded that one sharpen their knives before
slaughtering.
“Sharpen your knives, so that you make it easy for
the slaughtering animal.” (Saheeh Muslim)
The epitome of mercy and compassion to animals is that
he said that one should never sharpen their knives in their presence, nor
slaughter one animal in the presence of another.
“He commanded that we sharpen our knives and
[slaughter] out of the sight of other animals.” (Ahmad)
In another narration:
“The Prophet, may the mercy and blessings of God be
upon him, passed by a man who was sharpening his knife while had his foot on
one side of the face of a sheep (holding it to the ground), and it was looking
up at him. The Prophet said: ‘Couldn’t you have done this beforehand? You
wish to kill it many times.’”
(al-Mundhiri)
In order to be effective, CBP stunning must be performed
by highly trained personnel, and specific cartridge strengths must be used. If
this is not the case, or if the pistol is not positioned correctly, the animal
will have to endure the pain of being shot incorrectly, and then will have to face
the pain of being shot again, or the claimed pain (although not true) of being
knifed while conscious. If the animal were to have been slaughtered without
CBP, there would have been none or minimal pain felt by the animal. In a 1996
report, the Scientific Committee of the European Commission said that, “In 5 to
10% of cattle, captive bolt stunning is not applied correctly,“ which according
to VIVA (Vegetarian International Voice for Animals), translates to 230,000 cattle
in the UK alone. FAWC (Farm Animal Welfare association) reported “In the
course of our slaughterhouse visits, we have frequently examined carcass heads
to check the site of bolt penetration. In our view, there were far too many
cases where penetration had not been at or near the recommended position and
also evidence of a considerable number of double shots (i.e. indicating that
the first shot had missed its proper target).”
The same may be said for electric head-only stunning. The
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) says “There is
increasing scientific evidence that some animals that are stunned electrically
using tongs regain consciousness before they die from loss of blood.” The
reasons behind this are either an inefficient electric current being passed
through the animals’ brain during stunning or the animals begin to regain
consciousness if the time interval between stunning and sticking exceeds a
period of 20 seconds.
VIVA explains this saying that the stun caused by the
electric head-only technique lasts between 20 and 40 seconds whereas the
interval between stunning and knifing is as high as 70 seconds for sheep. This
means that there are around 5 million sheep that regain consciousness after
being electrically stunned before they die of blood loss.
Research done at Bristol University has also shown that
after an electric stun, sheep may not be able to feel pain; they do, however,
experience periods of full awareness. Furthermore, there is no evidence that
the loss of consciousness is immediate, and some people, like neurophysiologist
Dr. Harold Hilman, believe that stunning is extremely painful, pointing out that
the electrocution of prisoners is used as a torture method in some countries. The
animals cannot express this pain by crying out or by moving since the massive
electric current paralyzes them.
Inadequate stunning also occurs in water bath stunning,
especially with ducks and geese, as they tend to raise their heads when
entering the water bath and their heads are therefore not fully immersed in the
water. Another problem with this method is that, although the aim of this
method is to induce cardiac arrest, “many birds are improperly stunned and
recover consciousness before slaughter,” according to the RSPCA. This is also
the case for sticking, as animals may regain consciousness prior to death.
The pain felt by any living being through suffocation,
as in the case of gassing, is clear to any person and need not be detailed.
What can be observed is that although these methods are
supposedly meant to reduce pain, the result is that the animal actually
undergoes more pain, both from the initial stunning and from the following
actions if stunning is performed inadequately. Again, causing unnecessary pain
to animals is prohibited in Islam.
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